The Kingdom Belongs to a Child

Cashavelly Morrison

Cashavelly Morrison is an Americana-Alt Country singer and songwriter. Her debut album The Kingdom Belongs to a Child was released in October of 2015 to rave reviews and received an Independent Music Award for Best Alt Country Album. No Depression called it "a remarkable pearl" being one of the most "thoughtful, delicate, and elegant albums" they've heard. Famous Last Words named it one of the best albums of 2015, and Huffington Post called it "honest, evocative, and intoxicating." Her songs blend together the traditions of American roots, the ballads of Appalachia, and represent a confessional gateway into her deeply held values.

Growing up in Beckley, West Virginia, she began dancing from the age of three, leaving home when she turned 15 to study ballet at the UNC School of the Arts. She danced professionally, but as she grew older, she longed to rebel from the conformities and high societal expectations of female beauty she experienced in ballet. Before moving on to a more vocal outlet, she broke her spine and turned to writing.

It was during six months of reduced mobility in a back brace that she began writing lyrics that would be the beginnings of her music. She went on to get her undergraduate and master’s degrees in writing, taught herself the guitar, and wrote songs that reflected the old mountain ballads that she learned through the recordings of Jean Ritchie. Her husband, Classically-trained guitarist Ryan MacLeod, introduced her to the Appalachian and Southern music of his childhood, at first encouraging her to continue songwriting, and eventually joining her to create The Kingdom Belongs to a Child.

Her songwriting has been compared to Townes Van Zandt, Gillian Welch, Lucinda Williams, and Neko Case. The Kingdom Belongs to a Child is "a deeply intelligent piece of Americana that represents the universality of human emotion" (Indieminded).

Morrison has completed recording her second album with a projected release in 2018.

You’re not far into Kingdom before you realize that Morrison isn’t just an accomplished artist; she’s in control of her craft, eschewing the temptation to gray her songs. Instead she infuses each of them with a singularity, a voice and often, a challenge, which makes this collection of songs so much greater than just an ordinary object of beauty.